The bathroom is back :)

Result .... the shower is back where it should be. :)

Last friday Mr P came home grinning from ear to ear with the shower tray wedged in the back of the car. If you have ever been without a bathroom for over a month you will understand the excitement of that moment.

Shower tray mark II is truly an object of beauty ... no holes (except the plugholes) no cracks, no scale, no yellowing and it is so smooth. A lot tougher than the old one too. This is made of fibreglass whereas the old one was like a thick plastic type material. Ok, i'll stop now, I am well aware how odd this may sound to those not shower deprived!

On saturday, the excitement was no less but the enthusiasm for installing it waned a little as the thermometer in the van crept up to 28 degrees. It was not a job to be tackled on a rare day of british sunshine. So we chilled and lapped up the rays ... mañana, mañana being the general consensus.

Unfortunately this cunning plan was ruined when sunday dawned hot and sunny too - damn and blast! There was nothing else for it but to knuckle down and get on with the installation.

First we set about emptying the bathroom. We had to take one of the fuses out to remove power to the thetford and turn off the water so we could remove the sink. The sink was originally duck taped to the window sill but it fell down so many times in the middle of the night that in the end we just stuck it upright in the middle of the floor and danced around it when we needed a wee!

It took quite a while to get the shower tray in place as we don't think it was designed to be removed once in situ. The reach on the waste pipes was so short that the tray had to be virtually in place to get the jubilee clips onto the waste hoses and plug holes.

Luckily Mr P managed to reach in through the thetford door to connect one of the plugs or we would have been really schtuck!

It was just after this point that things started going a little wrong.

As we lowered the shower tray into position, there was a loud crack as the shower plug snapped underneath - 4 years of continuous use had made it brittle.

A swift dash to the local caravan shop ensued and the last 2 remaining plugs they had in stock were purchased. The floor was raised again, new plugs inserted, sink plumbed in, thetford installed and rewired then we realised that the shower drain pipe and the sink drain pipe were the wrong way round and the pipe would not reach the underside of the sink - arrrrgghhhh!

The last hours work was undone again, pipes were swapped and it was all put back together again. This time all was good!

The shower walls were installed, all screwed back into place then that was it for the night. We had started early afternoon and it was now about 8pm ... and felt like midnight.

Monday evening saw the beginning of the sealing, tuesday evening saw more sealing, wednesday evening would have been first shower but the stench of the sealant and tiredness proved too much and it was delayed till thursday morning.

The verdict .. bliss .... absolute bliss .... :)